


Reared in Peace

by hollyandvice (hiasobi_writes)



Series: Holly's Round Seven H/C Bingo Card [20]
Category: The Seer and the Sword
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-10-05
Packaged: 2018-08-19 16:02:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8215829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiasobi_writes/pseuds/hollyandvice
Summary: "I had many things taken from me as a boy, Andris. My crown. My home. My father. But it all paled in comparison to what Vesputo took from me. Before I fled…." He swallows, the words more difficult than they have any right to be. "Before I fled, he was to be married to the Princess. To Torina Archelda."

Landen ponders what may be his greatest loss.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. Written for H/C Bingo Round 7.

Andris' strength is all that gets Landen out of Archeld without killing Vesputo. The anger he'd felt at seeing the man again had been worse, more intense than even he had anticipated. For this time he was not only seeing Vesputo as the man that had treated him so cruelly in his youth. This time, he was seeing him for the first time as the worst crime he had ever committed. This time he was seeing him as Torina's killer. It isn't until they're a day's ride out of Archeld, having ridden hard and fast and nearly without stopping, making camp in the cold, that Andris finally forces him to stop and eat. The captivity hadn't been long, but it had brought back memories of a longer, more brutal captivity at Vesputo's hands, and Landen is grateful to break bread with Andris now that their mission is nearly complete.

It is as they sit together in the gradually deepening dusk that Andris asks. "What did he take from you, Bellanes?"

Landen glances over at Andris, contemplative. There's a gnawing in his stomach, but he ignores it, wondering if this one honesty is what he owes Andris for being so willing to keep his secret. But the truth is so close, so deep, so painful, that he almost doesn't dare think it, let alone speak it. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I have never seen such a rage as the one in your eyes when you set your gaze upon him."

Landen looks away, his throat tight and his chest tighter. "When I was a boy…." He shakes his head. "I had many things taken from me as a boy, Andris. My crown. My home. My father. But it all paled in comparison to what Vesputo took from me. Before I fled…." He swallows, the words more difficult than they have any right to be. "Before I fled, he was to be married to the Princess. To Torina Archelda."

Andris sucks in a sharp breath at whatever he hears in Landen's words, but his voice is steady when he speaks. "The Princess, Bellanes?"

"Aye. A worthier ruler you would never meet."

"I daresay I could name one," Andris says, cheek in his gaze.

Landen laughs. "You flatter me, my friend. But when I was alone, beaten and broken, desperate for salvation, she gave it to me. She gave me my freedom when I saw no way out, saved my life when I thought it forfeit, and restored my sanity more than once, I daresay. Without her, I never would have made it to the arena to fight you."

"How so?"

Landen lets himself fall quiet as he finds the words he's never dared speak. "Because the day I first inquired about the arena was the day I was told of her death."

The grief is thick in his chest, and it takes all his strength to lift the bread to his mouth and take another tasteless bite. Andris is silent, staring at Landen with wide, unseeing eyes. Eventually, he reaches out, his hand strong on Landen's shoulder.

Landen doesn't need Andris' words to know what he means. "Thank you, my friend," Landen says softly, reaching up to grasp Andris by the forearm. "It is… good not to carry that burden alone."

"Aye. You are not alone, Bellanes. Not in this. Not anymore."

Landen nods and turns back to his food. The hunger in his stomach abates slowly, but the desperate, starved need that he had felt to walk past Torina's grave--to finally know for sure that she is dead and gone--does not abate for days.

_Oh, I have lived with you and loved you_  
_And now you are gone away_  
_Gone where I cannot follow_  
_Until I have finished all my days_

**Author's Note:**

> [Come hang with me on tumblr!](http://hollyandvice.tumblr.com/)


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